The relevance of mineral mobilization and -dissolution on the reservoir quality of sandstones in CO₂ storage sites

Rotliegend siliciclastic formations are important reservoirs in central Europe. These sediments consist of pristine red coloured and bleached, high porous and permeable sandstones. To evaluate the relevance of distinct fluids and their fluid-rock alteration reactions on such bleaching processes laboratory static batch experiments under reservoir conditions were conducted. Thereby mineralogical, petrophysical and (hydro-, geo-) chemical rock features were investigated by different analytical methods before and after the experiments. The achieved results suggest that during such fluid-rock interactions a complex interplay between mineral detachment and mineral dissolution processes will control the porosity and permeability of reservoir sandstones.